Boone Logan’s Roster Spot

If you’ve been following the Yankees all season, then this should come as no surprise: Boone Logan has been awful. Last night’s appearance was pretty much a microcosm of his year; he faced one batter, threw one pitch, and hit the guy with it. Brutally ineffective, I’m talking unusably bad, so bad that I’m going to bullet point the badness…

Left-handed batters are hitting .300/.383/.425 off him in 47 plate appearances. His one job on this team is get lefties out, but he’s essentially turned them into something just short of Andre Ethier.

Logan has failed to retired a batter (one! singular!) in four of his last eight appearances, including last night.

He has five meltdowns and just four shutdowns. A meltdown is an appearance with -0.06 WPA or worse, a shutdown with +0.06 WPA or better. A 1.50 SD/MD ratio is like, the bare minimum for a medium leverage reliever. Sub-1.00 is horrific.

It’s pretty obvious at this point that the only things keeping Logan on the roster are his left-handedness and those 20 great innings down the stretch last season. Keep in mind that those 20 innings are basically his entire track record of success as a Major Leaguer, the other 163.2 IP have been pretty terrible. Because he’s out of options, the Yankees can’t simply send him to the minors to work things out. He’ll first have to clear waivers, and for a while we’ve all assumed that he wouldn’t just because he’s a lefty and throws hard. Is that really the case though?

Just looking around the league this year, a number of left-handed relievers have already been designated for assignment and most of them have cleared waivers. Jerry Blevins stands out for me. The Athletics designated him for assignment last month and then a few days later he was with their Triple-A affiliate because no one touched him on waivers. Blevins’ track record of success is a whole lot longer the Logan’s (he held lefties to a .227/.270/.292 batting line from 2007-2010, though he did a lot of up-and-down to Triple-A during that time), and here’s the real kicker: he’s making what amounts to the league minimum (just $420,000). Logan is making about three times that this year as an arbitration-eligible player, $1.2M to be exact. If Blevins cleared waivers with his track record and salary, wouldn’t it make sense that Logan would clear given his track record and salary? Sure, on paper it does.

The real question is this: should the Yankees be willing to risk it? Is Logan that irreplaceable? No, of course not. The other question is do they have someone better to replace him with? The obvious candidate is fellow lefty Randy Flores, who is doing an okay job against lefties in Triple-A (seven strikeouts, one walk in seven innings against them). If nothing else, he’s unlikely to be as bad as Logan has been so far. His opt-out clause is looming (though I don’t know the exact date) as well, so they can’t wait around forever. Another option is Kevin Whelan, though he’s a righty. I’m of the belief that a team should take its seven best arms regardless of pitching hand, so not having a lefty wouldn’t bother me one bit.

So I guess the moral of the story is that we’re starting to reach the breaking point with Logan. He hasn’t been effective at all and (even worse) there have been little to no signs of improvement thus far. Yes, he didn’t hit his stride until late last year, but last year he had the benefit of going to the minors to work on things, away from games that count. Left-handers that throw hard (and are reasonably young) are in demand, but I’m not 100% certain that someone will gamble on Logan given his salary. Remember, if he gets claimed off waivers, his entire salary and contract goes with him. The Yankees could designate him for assignment and hope he clears waivers and goes to Triple-A, or they could lose the bet and watch him go to another team. It’s risky, but you know what? Losing him really wouldn’t be a huge loss.

the roster spot should be used for a useful reliever rather than Boone. I would rather have no LOOGYs than a shitty one, I would not think that Girardi’s binder would agree.

http://riveraveblues.com Rich

Whelan’s ERA in AAA is 1.61 and his WHIP is a fantastic 0.82.
What the hell is he still doing down there when Logan can’t
get anybody out. I cringe everytime I just see him warming up!!

Kosmo

It´s a failed strategy when your Loogy ain´t gettin it done.Better go with the best available pitcher.
What Yankee RHRP has the best numbers facing lefties ? Anyone ?
How is Whelan vs. Lefties ?
Has it come down to Flores ?

Albaladejo had the same kind of numbers at SWB lat year, he got hit pretty hard when he
brought him up last year. Despite his great AAA performance last year nobody wanted him and I believe he is now in Japan.

David, Jr.

You are right. AAAA

V

Period. Spacebar. Type some more.

Jorge

When a guy comes up and has the kind of Melancon-esque outing that Whelan had his first time out, the team simply doesn’t seem to employ a whole lot of patience, even when his second outing was much better.

Cory Wade, on the other hand, came out there throwing strikes on Day One, and he’s about to be elected mayor.

Fair or not, if you’re not showing poise from the first second out there, you’re going to wind up riding the shuttle back to Scranton.

He is flat out terrible. Below replacement level. I’d rather they bring back Edwar Ramirez than keep running him out there.

LarryM.,Fl.

WOW. Edwar was good for a few balls to the fans in the bleachers with his pitching abilities.

LarryM.,Fl.

I agree go with the 7 best arms in the organization. Its nice to see Nova developing. I admit slowly but small steps in the right direction.

If Hughes comes back our SR will consist of CC, AJ, Hughes, Nova and Colon when healthy. We know what Garcia can give us and Gordon has a very small sample size of work but I’d hang onto Gordon before I hang on to Garcia. Sweaty Freddie is a disaster waiting to happen especially in the second half.

In furtherance of Nova’s development He stays in the SR as long as possible. The kid is showing some mettle.

JobaWockeeZ

The reason they have to have a LOOGY isn’t because of performance it’s because they fear for Girardi’s sanity if he doesn’t have said lefty.

king of fruitless hypotheticals

We all keep saying that, but the probablity that Colon or Garcia continue to perform at recent level isn’t good. That chance that both do is even lower. Add Hughes returning to his 18-win form, Gordon making it and Logan’s replacement catching lightening in bottle and it’s one in a million.

(somebody please say it…)

nsalem

Please don’t count on Hughes as a savior. I hope it happens, but so far his short career has shown some very mixed results. I see his 102 ERA+ last year being much more relevant than his 18 wins.

nsalem

I totally disagree with your assessment of Garcia. He has consistently been turning in quality starts at an over 65 percent rate for the last year and a half. We should also keep in mind he has been healthy which is key. I think people should get off his case until that disaster happens. Your suggestion that we should hang onto to someone who pitched 5 decent innings over someone who has been performing decently for his last 40 starts is void of any intelligence. Just because you think he will suck one day doesn’t mean he will. I wouldn’t want him starting any playoff games but he is a competent and reliable end of the rotation guy. Yes he did have that bad start against the Red Sox, but he has turned in 2 decent performances against the Rangers this year and he had a very good start against the Yankees at the end of last year.

jsbrendog

this.

freddy garcia’s track record the last 2 yrs>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>gordon’s entire major league career x 2

Your suggestion that we should hang onto to someone who pitched 5 decent innings over someone who has been performing decently for his last 40 starts is void of any intelligence.

Especially since the guy who pitched 5 decent innings has at least one minor league option remaining.

LarryM.,Fl.

My comment was based on watching Freddie and Gordon throw the ball in their last outings. It may not show much intelligence to go with a guy with 5 innings to his mlb stats as opposed to Freddie but its just a hunch. We shall see.

JobaWockeeZ

Yeah just DFA him and get some random on the scrap heap. They’re probably better than Logan.

dean

Boonie has been nicknamed by Girardi….he’s here to stay along with Jonesy

JoeG loves his “y” nicknames almost as well as his use of “went”–if Boony &
Jonesy “have went” to another org soon, I’ll be ecstatic.

7commerce

JoeG loves his “y” nicknames almost as well as his use of “went”–if Boony &
Jonesy “have went” to another org soon, I’ll be happy.

Naved

And even though small sample size but Andrew Brackman has now been put in the AAA bullpen. If he run off a couple of scoreless outings he has major potential to be a huge fireballer coming out of the bullpen for the yankees.

Logan, the same with Gordon(I like his story however)…to keep them and not trust the kids in the minors. Whelan had a bad start but, did better in his second. Pendleton didn’t pitch enough until his ERA game, where he warmed up twice that I remember and then Girardi tried to use him for two innings. He got through 1 and 2/3 then got gassed and lit up. No excuse of not having pitched in two weeks, or used too much in one game as Girardi did for Logan. Noesi pitched six innings of shutout ball in a losing effort and got sent down for the fresh arm.(Remember he wasn’t used at all in his first trip…too bad they don’t give credit for warming up) Would they have done that to Chamberlain or Hughes? I think not. I think the kids won’t be used because if they fail, they won’t be a chip anymore. It’s time to use the kids and forget about the scrap heap. PS: Speaking of scrap iron…did anyone else say we coulda’ had him when Johnson made the catch against Cano and hit the homer off CC, instead of the strike out non hustling Andruw Jones?

7commerce

Homer off Mo, not CC…but good Q. I favored Thames retention or Golson instead of ‘Dru.

Jimmy McNulty

This should be a two word article: Isn’t deserved.

NC Saint

“I’m of the belief that a team should take its seven best arms regardless of pitching hand, so not having a lefty wouldn’t bother me one bit.”

Completely discounting throwing hand is almost as silly as dogmatically insisting on at least one LOOGY. If you have a solid core of all-righty relievers, and one spot left to fill, a lefty who is actually good at getting out lefties might well provide more value than a righty who is better overall.

But, yes, keeping a guy who is terrible at getting out lefties just to check off the LOOGY box is bonkers.

nsalem

agreed rather see D-Rob start an important inning where big time lefties were coming up.

But, as stated the other day, we only have one D-Rob. Can’t pitch him every inning.

nsalem

Yes and that is very true, I would never want to see D-Rob, Proctor’d or Sturtze’d. On the
other hand IF we get healthy and Soriano returns, Noesi and Ayala remains useful instead of
having D-Rob pitch to an inning we would have him pitch to a line-up. I know that’s a fantasy but I can dream can’t I? After you comment the other day in which you invoked the name of Girardi’s predecessor I thanked the heavens for his departure, because I can only imagine the damage he would have done to D-Rob by now. What Ted Bundy was to woman,
Joe Torre was to relief pitchers.

Dump him. Release him outright. He stinks. End of story. If he was a righthander doing the exact same thing, he wouldn’t even be in the majors.

Monteroisdinero

Give Boone the boot and stick with our starters just a wee bit longer instead-when possible.

nsalem

Like in game 4 of the 2010 ALCS?

first time lawng time

Poor AJ. Everyone hated him after that. Except me. I knew it wasn’t his fault.

nsalem

It wasn’t his fault it was Girardi’s. Last night I thought you said you liked Nova better.

first time lawng time

It was Girardi’s fault. I swear.

And I do like Nova better; he’s cool. But AJ is my AJ. I understand him. I get him.

V

I have something in common with Boone.

I suck pitching with my left arm, also.

first time lawng time

I say get rid of this scrub.

CMP

I wonder what Graeme Lloyd is doing these days?

Frank M

I think the Yanks may put him on the “DL” with some strange mystery ailment like shoulder fatigue. This way they can bring up Flores, give him a shot and see if he does any better. They would have to open a roster spot on the 40 man but that way they can keep logan without exposing him to waivers at this point. I think they should just get rid of him.

Thoughts?

Mister Delaware

Why would Logan agree to this?

Greg

Because he gets a major league salary for doing nothing.

Mister Delaware

I’d have to imagine most major leaguers aren’t looking to sit on the DL to collect.

Mariano’s Pimp Hand

I’m going to teach my 3 year old to pitch left handed. I figure if he can throw in the general vicinity of home plate he can be a LOOGY.